Gray-collared Becard

The "flying cigar" with a blunt head, squared-off tail, and long, sickle-shaped wings. Body is dark gray with a slightly paler throat. Flies all day long with ridiculously fast, snappy wingbeats. Nests and roosts in chimneys. Often seen in small groups, twittering and cruising around town in search of insects. The only swift in the eastern U.S.

A stunning pheasant species endemic to Taiwan, the male a rich slaty blue with white markings and red facial skin, the female rich brown with extensive pale feather edges. Generally retiring, foraging quietly in the undergrowth of montane forests, but occasionally seen in the open, particularly in places where fed. Usually seen singly, in pairs, or in small family units (female with young). In breeding season, males drum with wings and give shrill whistling calls. Male lacks white back and tail of Swinhoe’s Pheasant; female has dark bill, grayish legs, pale markings below, and graduated, pointy tail, unlike female Swinhoe’s.

Small white parrot with short crest, ring of grayish-blue skin around the eye, and pink patch between the eye and the bill. Yellow-tinged undersides of wings and tail often visible in flight. Endemic to the forests of the Indonesian Tanimbar Islands, where now uncommon and declining. Introduced populations are scattered widely around the world and have become established in suburban areas in Taiwan, Singapore, Puerto Rico, Indonesia's Kai Islands, and Japan.